


The Dunce

by burning_nova



Series: Kinkmeme Fills [37]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, no-mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-15 06:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2219550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burning_nova/pseuds/burning_nova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eddie always lived in the shadow of the genius he should have been</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dunce

He was born through another crime against humanity by Dr. Doom, and named Edward "Eddie" Banner Stark by his fathers. He remembered his childhood as very happy. His parents watched him with open expectation any time he came to them with a sense of accomplishment. It was only when he was eight that Eddie understood what they were expecting from him when he came to them: genius. 

Any kind of genius really: art, maths or sciences...anything. 

The idea struck him as wrong and yet he understood. Daddy and Poppa were brilliant, the world rotated at their command. But Eddie couldn't make the world stop at his feet. 

They had him tested at ten. Eddie remembered the looks of disappointment on his fathers' faces when the results had come in (he had been hiding and curious). He wasn't stupid, far from it. But he wasn't a genius. He wasn't like Bruce Banner or Tony Stark, much less Brian Banner and Howard Stark. 

Daddy didn't understand why. Stark men were always geniuses. What had gone wrong? Poppa told him to shut up after that. Eddie had gone and cried in his room.

Anyone else would have been ecstatic. Eddie just felt stupid. Oh Poppa and Daddy still loved him and spent time with him. His whims were indulged beyond what was probably good parenting. But they treated him differently, just a bit differently really that if he hadn't seen the results (and their faces!) he most likely wouldn't have noticed.

Eddie even almost forgot about it. He was loved and supported (Daddy had almost had a heart attack when Eddie said he didn't want to go to MIT but Harvard. Poppa simply asked what he liked about it). There was nothing more he could ask for.

Then Mary Rebecca was born when he was 17 (again thanks to Dr. Doom). The apple of his fathers' eyes. Mary Rebecca was treated like any other little girl and Eddie loved her more intently than he could describe. And he saw the look on their faces, the look of expectation. 

Mary Rebecca was three and could recite pi to the 16th digit and read, much better than he ever had at three. Mary Rebecca was precocious and lit his fathers' world up in a way he never could. She tested (early) at rates comparable to Daddy and Poppa in their genius and she showed a talent for numbers. 

Eddie didn't know what it was that had caused him to be so...normal. Eddie later found out it was because of how he was born. Doctor Doom had messed with his genetics, had failed to recognize the Stark genius as what it was and removed it. Or at least that was the lie he was fed. When he had his first child, she tested as genius. 

Eddie was loved and admired, but when it came to his family Eddie was the dunce. 

It would give anyone a complex.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/19458.html?thread=45912066
> 
> http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/19458.html?thread=45894658#t45894658 where Stark genius is genetic and even though Tony's significant other is not a genius, his kid ends up super-genius anyway.
> 
> I'd like a riff on that. Stark genius is genetic, and Tony's significant other is a canon super-genius. However, for some reason, (dominant/recessive genes or some such), that doesn't work out for them, and they end up with a kid of above average intelligence, but nowhere near the genius his/her parents are.
> 
> Lots of angst, but also love and acceptance.


End file.
